GR explosion survivor: 'It's a miracle'

Chronicle News Service photoNeil Trevisan, front, sits down during rehearsal for a play.

GRAND RAPIDS — Local actor Neil Trevisan lost his hair studio in Tuesday's Eastown building explosion, but he didn't lose his sense of humor.

"You can drop a house on me like I'm the Wicked Witch of the West and I crawl out from under it," Trevisan joked from his Northwest Side home today. "I'm perfectly fine. It's just a blessing."

Trevisan, 44, is known to local theater audiences for such roles as Captain Hook in last season's production of "Peter Pan" at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "Rocky Horror Show" at Actors' Theatre.

But Tuesday afternoon he was in the middle of "Nightmare on Wealthy Street."

Trevisan, who had reported the smell of gas in the building at 1500/1502 Wealthy St. SE, was inside when it exploded, helping to show a worker from Michcon, DTE Energy's natural gas utility, the door to the basement.

"He had a meter in his hand and said something like 'getting a reading here.' Just as he said it, boom -- I mean like movie special effects boom. It was so instantaneous, so catastrophic, it took us a minute to catch up to what had happened."

Trevisan said he was thrown back by the explosion and had thoughts of being trapped by falling debris.

"It was pitch black with soot and dirt everywhere. I couldn't see. I could hear (a man) wailing. I just had this sense that I had to get out of there. Over to my right I saw daylight and as soon as I realized I could move I just ran across the street."

Trevisan was treated and released from Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital with scrapes on his legs, a black eye and a sore shoulder.

"It's a miracle I could walk away from the building and that six other people could walk away unscathed."

Six other people were injured in Tuesday's blast, but none suffered life-threatening injuries. The blast leveled five businesses in all.

Trevisan has operated Neil Patrick's Hair Design on the second floor of the building for 10 years. He said he has never had any other problems with gas smells.

He had been working with various hair clients since about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, he said. His afternoon appointment was a cut and color so while the color was processing he went to the kitchenette area at the back of his studio. The smell of gas was strong in that back area even though the kitchenette doesn't have a stove.

Trevisan said he and his client discussed the possible smell of gas but he finished her hair about 2:30 p.m. and felt fairly confident when she left because the hallway seemed free of the gas smell.

Then Trevisan queried the first-floor tenants in Kobos and Sense, a copy shop, and Picture This & Screen Printing. He said when one of those tenants opened the basement door the smell was overpowering. He called DTE Energy to report the problem and was told to evacuate the building.

He and one other tenant stood outside for five or 10 minutes, he said. It was cold so he returned to the building about 3:15 p.m. to be sure he wasn't overreacting to the smell.

"I noticed going up the stairs that it looked hazy," he said.

He thought the second upstairs business, Shamanic Healing Center, wasn't open that day and double checked the door, which was locked.

"The smell was so strong I had to put a scarf over my mouth."

From the upstairs window he saw the Michcon truck arrive and went downstairs to meet the gas company representative. He and another tenant took the gas company representative into the building through a back door and the explosion happened a few minutes later.

"It's a miracle I didn't have any appointments at that time," Trevisan said, adding his next appointment was at 4:30 p.m.

"I'm just glad that I had that little break. If I had an appointment, I would have been up there doing someone's hair and I would be dead. And she would be dead too."